Six Hurdles in seeking Radiology Second Opinion on MRI or CT or USG or Xray

In the internet world, patients have much control of the radiology second opinion outcomes. May it be MRI Brain or MRI Breast or MRI Spine or CT Chest or USG Abdomen or Chest Xray, now get rid of following 6 hurdles and you will be pleasantly surprised with radiology outcomes.

The process of second opinion starts with an emotional trigger. Partly due to the patient's wish to re-confirm the findings in the primary report and partly due to the referral doctor's doubt. Once it is decided to take an opinion, what remains to be known is the process of second opinion or review of your MRI or CT or USG or Xray Scans. The process has multiple stakeholders and hurdles. Following are the hurdles to make this process smooth and to arrive at peaceful or actionable result:

1. Radiologist
2. Ratings
3. Image Quality
4. Primary Report
5. Clinical History
6. Expected Outcome

 1. Radiologist

Primary reading needs relook from the eyes of an experienced radiologist, therefore a radiologist who can re-interpret the images based on his experience and skills becomes cardinal in the process of second opinion. However it is not easy to identify such an Expert radiologist in general. Specifically the quest for second opinion stops if there is no commitment from the radiologist to furnosh a report in 8-12 hours. It needs an enterprising and organised effort to rejig a second opinion. Some online platforms are known to help in this part of second opinion essentials.

 2. Ratings

If you have no idea of rating or feedback of a particular radiologist, it offers resistance in mind to walk on the path seeking radiology opinion. In order to know a particular radiologist, it needs a good amount of homework or network. Today it is easy, we have an online presence of radiologists but the hurdle is to know credible platforms that access the quality of the fellow radiologist and incentivise them rightly. This rating mechanism should be unbiased, patient centric and sustainable. (TeleradiologyHub uniquely establishes the rating mechanism for patients, however it is highly confidential)

3. Image Quality

The MRI Scan or CT scans are modern diagnostic tools that present with records of patients with images of internal parts of the body where human eyes can not reach. These images are starting point for a radiologist to look into the parts of the organ and comment or read. The complexity of body part demands the images should be in high resolution. Most of the times, patients get confused between the format of images like JPEG, PNG or DCM. For the better results, it is important to have .dcm (Dicom) images- must be obtained from diagnostic centres. Sometime the diagnostic centres charge extra $10 for writing CD or giving out in pen drive. One must  insist upon Dicom Images only. Without the proper image quality, the second opinion could be compromised, one must keep that in mind.

 4. Primary Report

Mostly it is thought that while going for second opinion, there should be no need to provide primary report. It is felt an issue of competence when the radiologists ask for primary report. No ! This is not the case. Primary reports are strictly required for comparison and evaluation purposes. It helps in bettering radiology outcomes. The major benefit of primary reports in second opinion is that such reports  are made by radiologist in close vicinity of patients hence it might contain some new information directly from patients. Also medico-legally, it is important to serve radiologist with primary report. There should be no fear in the mind that providing the primary report can unnecessarily influence the radiologist. It does not! On the other side it proves helpful in many cases.

 5. Clinical History

Non availability of the clinical history can mar the output of second opinion. The characteristic of a good radiologist is that she always demands to know the clinical presentations of the patient before commissioning the second opinion or primary opinion report. The inability of the platforms to seek clinical history from patients or hurriedness of patient can frequently obstruct the process of seeking proper clinical history but it must be rule of the day.

 6. Expected Outcomes

Unlike Primary MRI or CT scan reports, one must have a reasons for seeking second opinion. It could be anything from self-assurance to explore a particular doubt. The second opinion seeking platform should have flexibility to even get the questions from the patients and make radiologist attempt those questions.

All these hurdles are to be crossed in quality second opinion outcomes. In the ever growing radiology ecosystem, from a patient point of view the most important factor remains is the image quality. Like other hurdles or choices, patients has a right or prerogative to get his DCM images from Lab, hence input controls from patient side shape the radiology outcomes majorly.